Shajar al-Durr

Shajar al-Durr (1215-28 April 1257) was the Sultana of the Ayyubid Sultanate from 2 May to July 1250, succeeding al-Muazzam Turanshah and preceding Izz al-Din Aybak.

Biography
Shajar al-Durr was born in 1215 to a family of Muslim Armenians, and she was a beautiful, intelligent, and pious woman. Ayyubid sultan as-Salih Ayyub purchased her as a slave, and he married her in 1240, making her sultana. When her stepson al-Muazzam Turanshah was murdered by the Bahri Mamluks in 1250, she was briefly the Sultana of the Ayyubid Sultanate, the first female monarch in Muslim history. She entered into conflict with the Ayyubids, and she married the mamluk Izz al-Din Aybak, who became the first Sultan of the Bahri Sultanate. Shajar al-Durr was stripped and beaten to death in 1257 after she had Aybak murdered for infidelity, and she was buried at the Mosque of Ibn Tulun in Cairo.